Ninja Assassin : A New Creed
by WickedItch
Summary: A young woman is running for her life with information that could change the medical field forever. What happens when she attracts the wrong kind of attention, like The Clan's attention? And Raizo shows up to protect her, even though he was one of them? Read on to find out!


This is my first ever story, so please don't drown me in flames. Don't own anything and am making no profit, so enjoy!

1.

'_Crap, crap, CRAP!'_, she thought as she ran down the hallway. Alarms were going off everywhere, the spinning red sirens the only illumination in the building as the power had been cut a few minutes ago. The back up generators were supposed to power the red EXIT signs and the flood lights at the end of the hall, but those were destroyed. The only lighting was the chasing red of the siren that made the hallway seem to be moving on its own.

She ran past the body of a security guard and almost threw up right there. His arm was sitting next to him on the ground, no longer being attached to his body, laying in a large pool of blood. His face was completely unrecognizable. She forcefully jerked her head to the front and focused on running.

The elevators were straight ahead, but she was not going to take the chance of alerting anyone that may be around of her presence in the building, so she would have to use the stairs. Besides, she wasn't even sure if the elevators would work with no power. She turned left at the elevator doors and found the door to the stairwell. She opened it slowly, listening for any noise that might indicate someone's presence. When she heard nothing but the alarm, she slid into the stairwell, thankfully still bathed in the meager emergency lighting, and quietly shut the door behind her.

She made as little noise as she could on the way down while still trying to maintain her speed. That wasn't easy on metal stairs, but it helped that she was wearing tennis shoes. It took a bit to go down five floors, but she made it without encountering anyone. The next hurdle would be making it across the guard station at the entrance, then to freedom. The only problem would be visibility. She was pretty sure the station would be abandoned, but there was no other way out of the building but those front doors. She would have to run straight out in the open to get to them. _'Crap'_, she thought again.

She put her ear to the door before attempting to open it, but only heard the siren reverberating through the metal. She took a deep breath, held it for a minute, then, twisting the knob as slowly and quietly as she could, began to push the door open. She peaked through a bare sliver to see exactly what she thought she would see, the abandoned guard station swirling in the red siren mounted on the ceiling above it. She waited for just a second, listening, then pushed the door open another inch. Still no one. Just when she was going to try for another inch, voices. She froze, hoping the slightly open door wouldn't be noticed, and listened.

"…didn't see anything!" The voice belonged to a man.

"There had to be a hidden safe in that room! Are you sure they searched everywhere?" The voice of another man, their footsteps getting closer.

""They said they tore that room apart!" The first man's voice, sounding a little panicked.

"There's something they missed. We have to find that disk!" The footsteps were getting further away, carrying the rest of the conversation with them. A cold coil of panic began to wind around in her stomach. If they caught her, she was dead. She was 99.9% sure she had the disk they were after.

She stayed very still, waiting until she was sure whomever had been talking was gone, and tried for the next inch on the door. Nothing. Another push had her head peaking through, and she took the chance, slowly poking her head out to get a 360* view of the lobby. Completely abandoned. It was now or never, she realized, and feeling the burn of panic wash over her, gritted her teeth and flung the door open. She launched her body out of the stairwell, thankful again for the grip of her tennis shoes, and ran full tilt across the 1000 square foot lobby space. A pair of polished security guard type shoes caught her attention peaking from behind the guard desk as they contrasted with the highly polished white melamine floor. From the angle of the shoes, the owner was either sitting or lying down on the floor. A split second thought of _'security guards don't sit on the floor' _, and she knew he was either severely hurt or dead. _'Like the other guy upstairs.' _she thought. The panic swelled in her chest, adrenaline adding a burst of speed to her escape.

She made it all the way across the lobby, slamming into the huge glass doors, and flung one open with all her might. She exploded into the open and kept going, running around the building to the alley on the side. She slipped around the corner into total blackness. The security lights that lined the alley were out. She put her back to the alley wall, trying to disappear into the darkness. She knew she needed to get as far away from this place as quickly as she could, so she only relaxed for just a second, just long enough to catch her breath. Then, just as she was turning to keep running, a hard body literally melted out of the solid wall behind her, a hand quickly clamping over her mouth. She tried what anyone would do when terrified out of their minds, and took a breath to scream. She held it though as warm breath ghosted over her ear.

"I'm a friend. I'm not going to hurt you, but we need to leave…..now.", and she was suddenly being pulled by her hand out the other side of the alley. She ran behind him as fast as she could, and stopped beside him as he was hastily looking up and down the street. She didn't have time to take all of him in, but she did see black, shoulder length hair as he whipped his head around. Then they were running again. They finally slowed down when they found a heavily populated street, and took a moment to catch their breaths. He then looked directly at her as he spoke.

"I think we are safe for the moment. They will not attack in a crowd."

She leaned heavily on the building as she got a good look at him. Slightly taller then her, maybe Japanese or Chinese, shoulder length black hair and eyes that gave her the goosebumps. Her intuition was starting to go off. She could feel an aura pulsing off of him that said '_dangerous, stay back'_, but they were on a crowded street, so she was mostly sure he wouldn't try anything right now. Plus, he did just kind of save her life.

"We need to find a place, very public, where we can talk, Ayla. Let's see if there's a restaurant around here."

It struck her, instantly, that he'd used her name, but she was 100% sure she'd never seen him before.

"How do you know my name?" She didn't like the slightly frightened sound of her voice, so she cleared her throat and tried again. "I'm sure I've never met you." There. That's better. Couldn't show weakness in front of anyone. Almost as if he knew what she was thinking, the corner of his mouth turned up in a little smirk as he held a hand out to her.

"I meant it when I said I wouldn't hurt you. I was hired to protect you."

Any other person would have asked what they needed protection from, but, that she was currently aware of, she had at least two different governments trying to track her down, along with numerous, smaller agencies. So that would kind of be a stupid question. She was just wondering who, exactly, would hire protection for her. Her whole family, and everyone she'd known were dead.

"Who hired you?"

"Come on. Let's talk"

The bar he'd chosen was perfect. It was dimly lit, and only partially crowded. Not enough to overwhelm the senses but enough that you wouldn't notice a couple of strangers in a booth in the back corner. There was enough going on around the bar itself to serve as a nice distraction. It also hadn't escaped her notice that they had a perfect view of everyone around them from their booth, and all the exits.

'_Funny how I wouldn't have noticed these things a year ago.'_ , she thought with a sigh. Since she'd started running, paying attention to your environment (after a couple of close calls) had become second nature, a survival instinct. Apparently, it hadn't escaped Raizo's notice, either.

"You've been running a long time."

She glanced at him, then turned her attention back to her surroundings. Mustn't get distracted.

"Yeah." she said, quietly. "I guess it's been over a year now since…."_'my whole family was gutted in front of me.'_

She couldn't finish the sentence and vocalize the atrocities that had happened. It made them too real. She'd been in a deep depression for a while and that's when she'd almost been killed. Twice. Easier to just pretend it was all a bad dream and focus, instead, on finishing her father's work.

"I read the file and I'm sorry for what you've gone through. Not many people could have survived as long as you have, though. You've got strength."

She looked at him again and saw admiration in his gaze. She smiled a bit in gratitude.

"Yeah, it's been pretty rough, but I have to finish this. For my father."

The waitress came over and handed them menus, then left with their drink orders. She started fishing around in her pockets to see how much money she had. Probably not much. She hadn't eaten in two days as it was, and everything on the menu was way out of her price range. Raizo put a hand on her forearm to still her movements.

"Don't worry about it. I've got it." She was about to protest when he put a hand up to stop her. "And you're ordering a full meal. I'm sure you haven't eaten right in a while." As if in answer, her stomach piped up with its own loud growl. She glanced out of the corner of her eye, with a blush staining her cheeks, to see if he'd heard. That little smirk on his lips made her blush harder. She sighed again, staring at the menu on the table, but not taking it.

"Don't think of it as charity. I'm paid to protect you. Even if that means making sure your fed." He picked up the menu and put it right in front of her face where she was forced to grab it. She scanned around for a few minutes and found something she hadn't had in a long time that sounded heavenly. A chicken fried steak platter, with all the trimmings. The waitress reappeared and they both ordered. A heavy silence fell once she left. Ayla had a hundred questions, but didn't really know where to start. It seemed he knew a lot about her, and that made her feel really awkward. Like he was a stalker or something. But…..he'd mentioned a file? On her? He seemed to know exactly what she was thinking, so he started out.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and I know your uncomfortable with me knowing so much about you, so I'll let you lead. Ask anything that comes to mind and we'll go from there."

"Who hired you?" She didn't even have to think about that one as it was the question that had her curiosity peaked the most. "I didn't think I had anyone left."

"You're father did."

That answer floored her. He'd been dead for over a year now. Her bullshit meter went off and she was about to retort, but he held that hand up again as if to still her thoughts.

"Your father knew the research he was involved in was incredibly dangerous in that people would kill to get his findings. He put aside a fund, of sorts, to help his family if anything were to ever happen to him. It's taken me a long time to track you down. I've had your file for over a month."

Her father? A fund? Interesting. But something didn't match up.

"If that's the truth, then why did it take so long to find me?"

Raizo steepled his fingers in front of his face, an apologetic look on his features.

"After your family was murdered, the house was burned down with the bodies inside, including the body of a young woman about your age. You were presumed dead. I can only assume that the people who murdered your family were unable to find his research, and also knew you were still alive somewhere. They were hoping you'd lead them to it."

He waited a second for the news to digest, giving her a chance to come to terms with it. They burned her home. And her family. They hadn't even had a proper burial. But she hadn't known that. She'd been long gone by that time, having escaped her bonds and hightailed it out of there. She didn't stay in one place for too long, so there was really no chance to catch up on what had happened after she'd escaped. She'd only been focused on her fathers last words to her. '_If only the beach were a day away'. _It had been cryptic, but she understood perfectly what he'd been instructing her to do. As being the oldest child, he'd spoken to her many times about how much this research would be sought after by the 'wrong kind of people'. Namely, major pharmaceutical companies that wanted to profit from it. So, once he'd been successful, he'd hidden it away. No one really knew about the small office he kept in California. It was rented under a dummy name. But, every time they went to California to 'vacation', he would work long hours in that office while her and her siblings played on the beach. He said that little quote every time they were there. That's how she'd known where to find the disk.

"Did I? Someone killed the whole building while I was in there, and, if it weren't for you, they probably would have gotten me, too."

"No. They already knew where to look for the disk. They had the information. It's only coincidence that you were both there at the same time. Did you get it?"

Alarm bells went off in her head, again. If she said yes, would he just kill her and take it? If she said no, what would he do then? He said his name was Raizo, and that he was her protector, but she'd learned to trust no one and nothing in the time she'd been on the run. Though, she was starting to believe he was a mind reader with the next words that came out of his mouth.

"I'm not going to kill you and take the disk. I know it's hard to trust people with what you've been through, but you have to trust me. My instructions are to deliver you and the disk, safely to your distant Uncle in England. Uncle Richard Clarke. He will know what to do. Until I can make travel arrangements, I am to keep you safe. Those are my instructions."

A distant relative she didn't know? Really? This was starting to sound like a Sherlock Holmes mystery. She was about to ask about this supposed Uncle when the waitress returned with their food, and all thought was wiped clean from her mind when the savory smelling plate was set in front of her.

"Eat. You'll need your strength."

She glanced at him to see that he'd already begun eating his.

"That sounded ominous." She quipped, but he only continued to eat. After a few minutes, he wiped his mouth with his napkin, and looked full on at her, demanding her complete attention.

"With the attention you've recently attracted, it is."

She stopped eating and gave him her complete focus when she heard the seriousness in his voice.

"What kind of attention?"

"Ninja"

Dun, Dun, Dun...Let me know what you think!


End file.
